About Me

Stephen L. Pruitt is Kentucky's sixth commissioner of education. He was selected for the position in September 2015.
Pruitt previously served as senior vice president with Achieve, Inc., a national nonpartisian, non-profit education reform organization, where he organized the development of the Next Generation Science Standards.
A native of Georgia, he started his education career as a high school chemistry teacher in Fayetteville and Tyron, Georgia. He later served as the science and mathematics program manager and director of academic standards with the Georgia Department of Education. Subsequently, he was named associate state superintendent for assessment and accountability and ultimately chief of staff for the Georgia Department of Education.
Pruitt holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Georgia College and State University, a master's degree in science education from the University of West Georgia and a Doctorate of Philosophy in chemistry education from Auburn University.

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Learning from other countries

Last week, teams from Kentucky, Colorado and New York City participated
in the semi-annual meeting of the Global Education Leaders’ Program (GELP). The Kentucky team included
several Kentucky Department of Education folks, two local superintendents and a
member of the Kentucky Board of Education. Travel and expenses for the U.S.
teams were covered by a grant from the Gates Foundation.

The purpose of GELP is to learn from each other about education
initiatives across the globe and to discuss ways to lead innovation to ensure
more students are successful. The semi-annual meetings are led by the
Innovation Unit from the United Kingdom.

I thought readers might be interested in a few of the insights we gained
from the meeting.

Standards – When we discussed learning standards with other nations, it
was apparent that most of the nations that are recognized as leaders in
education have national standards. Finland made a presentation on the
development process for their national standards. The process is driven by the
Ministry of Education, however, local schools and teachers have a lot of
flexibility in adopting curriculum and implementation of the standards.
Australia has national standards that were developed using a similar process.
The other nations or states present included British Columbia, China, South
Korea, Victoria, New Zealand, and India. All of these provinces/nations also
use national standards as a way to set expectations for student learning and
ensure that graduates are globally competitive.

Teacher Effectiveness – One of the most respected countries in the
world for the preparation and support of teachers is Finland. During the
meeting, we were able to spend a great deal of time learning the details on how
Finland changed teacher preparation, selection, and professional development. A
key word for Finland is trust. Finland does not have a national testing system
and there is no accountability system in place. Finland trusts teachers and
local municipalities to provide an excellent education for all children.
Finland and South Korea are well known for the selectivity of teacher
candidates. South Korea draws teacher candidates from the top 10 percent of
graduates and then provides full funding for a college education. Finland also
recruits from the top 10 percent and has 10 applicants for every one position
in teacher preparation.

Assessment – One of the most striking things we learned came from the
Chinese delegation. China (Shanghai) is well known for being number one in math
and reading on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. However, China is not
very happy with its education system. The Chinese are pushing for more
creativity and problem solving skills for students. The Chinese recognize that
their schools do a great job in preparing students for assessments that measure
basic skills, however, they also understand that in order for their economy to
continue to grow they must have graduates who have the 21st-century skills of
creativity, collaboration, communication and problem solving.

The collective work of the GELP community has led to publication of an
excellent book that I highly recommend – Redesigning
Education: Shaping Learning Systems Around the Globe. It is interesting
that we in the states are still debating things like common core standards, teacher
preparation and standardized testing while the nations we compete against
globally have moved well beyond this debate. When you get outside of the United
States, you see a world that understands this century will probably be the
“Asia Century” due to the rapid expansion of economies in China and India.

When I talk to key business leaders in Kentucky, most of them tell me
that their business interests are spread globally and the Kentucky education
system must increase the focus on preparing students for the 21st century and
global competition. Our General Assembly got that message when they passed Senate Bill 1 in 2009. By participating
in the GELP program, we are keeping Kentucky at the forefront of education not
only in the U.S. but also across the globe. Many countries were very interested
in our implementation process for common core standards and districts of
innovation.

It was very satisfying to see that Kentucky is keeping up with the
world!